Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) International Summer Semester (ISS) 2017
“New Experience, New Engagement”
Nuturing Talents:
Education and Human Resource Policy in the Global Economy
Prof. Sunwoong Kim, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
SHORT COURSE DESCRIPTION
With the expansion knowledge economy worldwide, education and human capital is
recognized as an important part of economic development in developing countries as well as in
developed countries. In this course, we examine critical public policy issues regarding education and
human resource policy from a global and comparative perspective. We first start the importance of
the role of education to society as well as to individuals. We examine economic benefits of education,
and also related side effects such as diploma disease, credentialism, and unemployment of highly
educated young people. As most of the governments around the world spends substantial amount of
public resource in education, we will study public school systems closely. Various issues related to
public school system such as financing, governance structure, and allocation of resources will be
discussed. Finally, we examine the emerging issue of internationalization of higher education such as
brain drain, certification of foreign credits or diplomas, world rankings of research universities. In
relations to this year’s theme, ““Global Synergy: Innovating through Collaboration,” we would like to
explore the possibility of utilizing education as a mechanism for global collaboration and a source for
innovation.
READING MATERIALS
All reading material is listed for the date of the class. Items with (*) are required readings,
and others are recommended and for reference. Students are expected to read the required readings
before the scheduled class, and should be prepared to engage in the discussion of the topic. Most of
the reading material will be accessible via the ISS homepage.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Students are required to participate in two sets of group presentations, which will be
explained and assigned at the first class meeting. Also, students may be required to participate in
class experiments. There will be a take-home exam at the end of the class. Final grade will be
determined by the following weights:
1. Group presentations & homework
50%
2. Individual homework & final exam
50%
Students are expected to attend ALL classes. It is important to note that the SKKU regulation
requires students to attend at least 80% of all classes in order to receive a passing grade. All ISS
classes are pass/fail based on the student academic achievement evaluated by grades on a scale of
100 points (grade of 60 or above is Pass). Attendance will be taken at each class. Students reporting
to the class after 15 minutes or leaving before 15 minutes of its ending will be considered “tardy,”
and two “tardy” will be considered to be one “absence.” Students are expected to adhere to the
highest academic ethical norm in the class. Academic misconduct, such as disturbance, cheating or
plagiarism, will be penalized (including the failure of the class) at the discretion of the instructor.
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COURSE SCHEDULE
– WEEK I –
Tuesday (27 June)
Education, knowledge, learning, and society of the 21st century
What should we know, and why in order to be happy, healthy, and become productive members of
the modern society? What are we going to do and be to live, to play, and to work? What does
education do to individuals and societies in general.
(*) Institute for the Future for the University of Phoenix Research Institute, Future Skills 2020,
2011
(*) Belfield, Clive R. (2000), Economic Principles for Education: Theory and Evidence,
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, chap. 1
Gradstein, M, Justman, M., and B. Meier (2005), The Political Economy of Education:
Implications for Growth and Inequality, Cambridge: MA, MIT Press, chap. 1, 2.
Human capital theory
What is human capital? What are other forms of capitals? How human capital is beneficial to
individuals, firms, nation, and global society? How do you accumulate human capital?
(*) Belfield, chap. 2
(*) Becker, Gary, “Human Capital,” Concise Encyclopedia of Economics,
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/HumanCapital.html
(*) Schultz, T. W. (1961), “Investment in Human Capital,” American Economic Review 51 (March), pp.
1-17.
Wednesday (28 June)
Returns to education, under-education, and over-education
Rate of return in education investment. Mincer regression
(*) Psacharopoulos, G. (1994), “Returns to Investment in Education: A Global Update,” World
Development 9: 1325-1343.
(*) Psacharopoulos, G. and H. A. Patrinos (2004), “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further
Update,” Education Economics 12 (2), 111-134.
(*) Freeman, Richard B., The Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Summer, 1975), pp. 287-31
Cohn, E. and J. T. Addison (1998), “The Economic Returns to lifelong Learning,” Educational
Economics 6, 309-346.
Thursday (29 June)
Credentials, sheep skins, diploma disease, signaling, screening, and underand un-employment of highly educated
Why do you want to go to school? Why do you want to go to “good” school? Why good schools are
expensive? Does the good school worth their cost?
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(*) Bedard, K. (2001), “Human Capital versus Signaling Models: University Access and High School
Drop-outs,” Journal of Political Economy 190(4), 749-775.
(*) Weiss, A. (1995) “Human Capital vs. Signalling Explanations of Wages” Journal of Economic
Perspectives 9 (Fall), 133-154.
(*) Chevalier, A., Harmon, C, Walker, I and Y. Zhu (2004), “Does Education Raise Productivity, or Just
Reflect It?” Economic Journal 114(499), 499-517.
Spence, Michael (1973), “Job Market Signaling,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 87: 355-374.
Friday (30 June)
Human capital, social capital, education and economic growth
(*) Barro, Robert J. (2001), “Human Capital and Growth,” American Economic Review, Papers and
Proceedings 91(2), 12-17.
(*) Hanushek, E. A. and D. D. Kimko (2000), “Schooling, Labor Force Quality, and the Growth of
Nations,” American Economic Review 90(5), 1184-1280.
Belfield, chap. 5, 6
Gradstein, M, Justman, M., and B. Meier (2005), The Political Economy of Education: Implications for
Growth and Inequality, Cambridge: MA, MIT Press, chap. 8
Coleman, J. S. (1988), “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital,” American Journal of
Sociology 94, pp. 95-120.
Knack, S. and Keefer, P. (1997), “Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-country
Investigation,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, p. 1252-1287.
Mincer, Jacob (1996), “Economic Development, Growth of Human Capital and the Dynamics of Wage
Structure,” Journal of Economic Growth 1: 29-48.
Homework: Calculation of personal returns to university education
– WEEK II –
Monday (3 July)
Education, market, and government
Is education public good? What should be the role of government in education, and why government
involvement is necessary? How much resource the government should put into education (school
system), and what kind of education (pre-school, primary, secondary, higher education, research,
adult education)?
(*) Taylor, L. L. (1999), Government’s role in primary and secondary education, Economic Review (1),
15-24. www.dallasfed.org/research/er/1999/er9901b.pdf
(*) Poterba, J. (1994), “Government Intervention in the Markets for Education and Health Care: How
and Why?” NBER Working Paper 4916 (November)
The First Group Presentation – Part I
Tuesday (4 July) )
Public policy goals and tools for policy analysis: Efficiency and equity
What should be the major objectives of educational institutions? How much social mobility is
desirable? What should be the mechanism of social mobility? Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness
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analysis
Economic efficiency
Market (exchange) efficiency: Do consumers get what they want?
Cost efficiency: Are things produced in a least expensive way?
Production efficiency: Are the things that consumers want produced?
(*) Equity: Distributive justice (Who should get what?), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/
(*) New Zealand Treasury, Cost benefit analysis primer
(*) H. M. Levin, Cost effectiveness analysis primer, International Encyclopedia of Economics of
Education
The First Group Presentation II – Part II
Wednesday (5 July)
School financing
What is compulsory education? Why do you need it? How should it be paid? Who should pay for
higher education?
(*) Levin, H. (1987) “Education as a public and private good,” Journal of Policy Analysis and
Management 6(4), summer, 628-641
(*)
Friedman,
M.
(1962),
“The
Role
of
Government
in
Education”
http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/frid1.htm
(*) Eicher, J. (2000), “The Financing of Education: An Economic Issue?” European Journal of
Education 35(1), 33-44.
Duncombe C. W. and J. Yinger (1998), “School Finance Reform: Aid Formulas and Equity Objectives,”
National Tax Journal, June, 239-262.
Thursday (6 July)
School inputs and student achievements
What are the determinants of good student achievements? Does good school matter? If so, how?
Where should we put our resource to improve school performance, smaller class size, online
teaching, etc?
(*) Woessman, Ludger (2003), Schooling Resources, Educational Institutions and Student
Performance: the International Evidence,” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 65(2), pp. 117170.
(*) Hanushek, E. (1996), “School Resources and Student Performance” in G. Burtless, ed. Does
Money Matter? The Brookings Institution: Washington D. C. pp. 74-92.
(*) Hanushek, Eric, “Conclusions and Controversies about the Effectiveness of School Resources,”
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, March 1998, pp. 11-27.
Coleman, James S. (1966), Equality of Educational Opportunity" ("Coleman Report")
Dee, T. (2004), “Teachers, Race and Student Achievement in Randomized Experiment,” Review of
Economics and Statistics 86(1): 195-210.
Haveman, R. and B. Wolfe (1995), “The Determinants of Children’s Attainments: A Review of
Methods and Findings,” Journal of Economic Literature, 1829-1878.
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Friday (7 July)
Public school system reform: centralization vs. decentralization, class size vs.
accountability, competition vs. regulation
How to know your public system does not work? How to make an improvement? Who should be in
charge of the change?
(*) The National Commission of Excellence in Education (1983), A Nation at Risk, pp. 5-36.
(*) McKinsey Co. (2010), “How the world’s most improved school system keep getting better,” study
(*) Hanushek, E. and M. Raymond (2005), “Does School Accountability Lead to Improved Student
Performance?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 24(2), 297-327.
Hoxby, C. (2000), Does Competition among Public Schools Benefit Students and Taxpayers? American
Economic Review 90 (December).
– WEEK III –
Monday (10 July)
school
Alternatives to public school monopoly: school voucher and charter
New paradigm of improving public school system: accountability measures, voucher and charter
school
(*) Levin, H. (1998), Educational Vouchers: Effectiveness, Choice, and Costs,” Journal of Policy
Analysis and Management, 373-391.
(*) Kim, S., “Accountability and Governance in the U.S. Public School System in the U.S.,”KEDI
Journal of Education Policy, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 61-83, 2004.
(*) US Department of Education (2010), The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts: Final Report.
Ladd, H. and E. Fiske (2001), The Uneven Playing Field of School Choice: Evidence from New Zealand,”
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 20(1), 43-64.
Tuesday (11 July)
Global expansion of schooling
Why such rapid expansion of education worldwide? What are the causes and consequences?
(*) Schofer, Evan and John W. Meyer (2005), “The World-Wide Expansion of Higher Education in the
Twentieth Century,” American Sociological Review, vol. 70, pp. 898-920.
(*) Kim, S., “Rapid Expansion of Higher Education in Korea: Political Economy of Education Fever,” in
The Worldwide Transformation of Higher Education, International Perspectives on Education
and Society Series Vol. 9, edited by David P. Baker and Alexander W. Wiseman, Emerald
Publishing: Oxford, UK., pp. 223-268, 2008. The book was awarded the Best Book Award for
2010 from the Comparative and International Education Society’s Higher Education SIG (HESIG).
Wednesday (12 July)
Internationalization of higher education: Bologna process, Campus ASIA,
certification, quality assurance mechanism. International student movements.
(*) Altbach, Phillip (2007), “The Internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities,”
Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3-4), pp. 290-305.
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(*) Healey, Nigel M. (2008), “Is higher education in really ‘internationalizing’?” Higher Education 55:
333-355.
(*) European Commission (2005), Higher Education in Europe 2009: Development in the Bologna
Process.
Center for HE Policy Studies, “The first decade of working on the European Higher Education Area:
Volume 1 Detailed assessment report
European Guidelines for Quality Assurance (2005)
Thursday (13 July)
universities
Brain drain and brain gain.
Brain competition and world class
What makes great universities? World class universities. Global competition of research and
development.
(*) Kim, S., “From Brain Drain to Brain Competition: Changing Employment Opportunities and
Career Pattern of U.S.-Trained Korean Academics,” in Charles T. Clotfelter ed., American
Universities in a Global Market, National Bureau of Economic Research Book, The
University of Chicago Press, 2010, pp. 335-369.
(*) Ying, Cheng (2011), “A Reflection on the Effects of the 985 Project,” Chinese Education and
Society, 44(5), pp. 19-30.
(*) Vasegh-Daneshvary, Nassar, et al., “Immigration of Engineers, Scientists, and Physicians and
the U.S. High Technology Renaissance,” Social Science Quarterly 68(2), p311-325, 1987.
Friday (14 July)
Final examination (Take Home)
– WEEK IV –
Monday (17 July)
The Second Group Presentation
Evaluation of Education or Human Resource Programs/Projects
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